Knots Landing Revised
by zooman
Summary: My story is set during the tenth season of Knots Landing. Gary, Frank and Mac suspect that Ciji Dunne may still be alive, and quickly launch an investigation.


KNOTS LANDING REVISITED (this story takes place during the tenth season of Knots Landing). PROLOGUE-It was a rainy afternoon in the cul-de-sac. Karen had just finished the housework and walked tiredly into her bedroom. She collapsed with exhaustion down on the bed. She looked around at all the family photos on the drawer near the bed. The photo of she and Mac's wedding day, the photo of Val and Ben's wedding party, the photo of the celebration of opening day at Lotus Point-she, Abby, Gary, Greg, and Mac were in the photo smiling...then she glanced over at the wedding photo of she and Sid Fairgate. Karen slowly leaned upwards and picked up the photo. All at once memory lane started opening up. She lay back down on the bed and held the photo on her lap. In the large black and white picture, she and Sid were standing in the church in their wedding outfits. It brought back memories...

ACT _ONE-The year was about the early 1960s. Karen drove her beat up volkswagon into the white garage. There were two mechanics there. One was a tall black woman fixing a motorcycle way in the back of the garage. Karen noticed_ _a tall, good looking dark haired man standing in front of a jalopy. He was dressed in greasy overalls, and was slowly lifting up the hood of the car. "Excuse me," said Karen, as she got out of the volkswagon. The_ _dark haired man quickly looked right at her. Karen couldn't take her eyes off him. The man walked around the jalopy in her direction. "Yes mam?" he asked politely, "what can I do for you?" Karen just gazed at him transfixed for a second or two. The young woman had never seen such a beautiful man. She guessed him to be about ten years older than she-mabey thirty or so. Karen smiled. "Well my volkswagon has been breaking down frequently, and I can't find a reason for it but mabey you can?" The man stepped over to the blue volkswagon and began encircling it, with a perplexed look on his face. He then went to the back of the car and lifted the trunk. Then he went to the front of the car and lifted the hood. He just stood quietly looking down. "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm," muttered the man to himself, "well I would say that the engine on this thing is just about kaput." Karen sighed in frustration as she clutched her purse in her hands. "It also looks like the radiator is on it's last leg as well," said the man as he turned to smile at_ en. He s _eemed to be quite taken by her, as Karen judged by the look on his face. "I can set you up with a new one but it won't come cheap." Karen moved closer to him. "How much? I mean Im in college at the moment, with a summer barmaid job during vacation time." The man turned back to the volkswagon and lifted up the hood again. He looked back down. "I'm not sure yet. I could give you call if you want?' "That's fine," answered Karen. She quickly reached into her purse and got out a pen and notepad. She then shoved the purse in the left pocket of her dark blue dress. She quickly wrote down her phone number and handed it to the man. The man put the note in his pocket. "Why don't you leave the volkswagon here over night and I'll give you a call in the morning," offered the man, as he turned to look at Karen while slamming the hood of the car. "Thanks. Thanks alot," said Karen. The young woman still couldn't take her eyes off of him. "My name is Sid Fairgate by the way," the man introduced himself while he and Karen shook hands. "I'm Karen Cooper."_

 _A very young, attractive blonde haired girl walked into the garage at that moment. She was wearing a green tee shirt and brown shorts. "Hey Sid, what's up?" asked the woman. Sid gestured his thumb at the girl. "That's my sister Abby. She's a part time receptionist here." Karen and Abby both nodded at each other._

 _K_ aren then put the wedding photo back on the drawer. She sat up in her bed and sighed with regret. She then walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to get dinner started.

 _G_ ary sat down in his living room and turned on the tv. The show tonight was a live concert of Cathy Geary. Gary leaned forwards in his chair. The singer was still out of sight. The blonde beauty sung and danced all over the stage, singing her own version of Stoney End. Gary smiled and smiled and shook his head. The phone rang. Gary answered it while still remaining transfixed on the screen. "Hello," he said. "Gary it's Val," replied Val's voice. "Say Gary I'm just asking but are we still on for tonight? Remember we were going to take the kids to that showing of Bus Stop at the Cineplaxe?" The Cineplaxe was the only theater in town that specialized in showing old movies. Gary focused on Cathy's wild dancing and singing on the brightly lit stage in some concert hall in London. "You there Gary?" asked Val. Gary smiled. "Yes I'm here. And yes we're still on for tonight." "Ok Gary see you then." Gary heard the click as Val hung up. There was break in the concert on tv. A reporter stepped on the stage where Cathy stood smiling in shimmering white bodysuit. The reporter, a sixty something year old black man began asking Cathy the usual routine questions of where she came from, how she got her start etc. Gary stood up and chuckled. "Well, "answered Cathy smiling, "it's been a long road. My first big break was being hired to perform by Richard Avery for his restaurant, but that didn't quite come off." Gary just stood there watching the screen puzzled. He folded his arms over his sky blue sweater. "But it's been a fun road. I mean hey look at me I made it!" The camera zoomed in for a closeup on Cathy. Then a commercial break of Dick Van Dyke selling Kodak cameras. Gary switched off the tv. His eyebrows pushed together in puzzlement. "Richard Avery hired her to perform at his place?" he whispered to himself. He slowly shook his head.

Gary went to Val's place at around six in the evening. Val and the kids were bounding out the door as soon as he arrived. He and Val hugged and kissed then he put his whole family in his car, and drove to the movie theater.

He slowly made his way through the airport. He was still feeling really, really dazed after all he'd been through. His clothes were ragged, he smelled musty (he hadn't had time to put on anything clean, as he'd been in such a hurry to escape), so he just wandered about the whole terminal in a fog, after getting off the plane. He hurried out the main entrance of the airport, past scores of people looking at him strangely, then hailed a taxi. Right now I just want to get to the hotel and sleep for a week, he thought as he got into the taxi. I'm tired of always having my life in danger, of looking over my shoulder. He quickly had a brief memory of that bandit shooting at him, as he ran through the glade...

After the movie was over, Gary and his family all walked out of the movie theater and got into the car. Val noticed that Gary seemed a bit distant, preoccupied with something. As Gary was driving them all down the freeway, with Val seated next to him, Val saw that something was on his mind. She wiped some popcorn off her pink blouse and turned to look at her ex husband. "Is anything wrong Gary?" she asked. Gary shook his head. "No nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?" "Well it's just that all evening you seemed really preoccupied with something...I mean was something bothering you?" "NO," said Gary simply. "Did you kids both like the movie?" he said to the smiling kids in the backseat. "Yeah it was great," his son answered. Val wasn't convinced. "Your not drinking again are you?" she asked. Gary chuckled a bit and shot a glance at her. "Why do you ask that?" Val put her purse on her lap. "I don't know." "Nothing is wrong, "said Gary.

Karen and Mac both sat in the living room. Karen was engrossed in a magazine, while Mac was involved in some book about true life haunted houses. Mac looked up from the paperback he was reading-a full color illustration of a haunted house was on the cover-and raised his eyebrows at Karen. "Hey this is interesting, this one guy claims that as he was driving down this deserted street in New York, late one night, that he came across a ghostly black sedan following him." Karen slowly glanced up from her magazine. "I don't believe it," said Karen. "A ghostly sedan?! " said Mac again. "First time I ever heard that a ghost could also be a car! Hahahaha!" "A sedan huh?" said Karen as she went back to memory lane aga

 _Karen walked back into the white garage early the next morning. She was astonished to find that her previously beat up volkswagon looked as good as the first day she'd bought it. She quickly walked all around the car with a huge grin on her face, waving her arms about. She didn't want to get any grease on her orange shirt and purple pants so she was careful, not to get to close to the car. Sid Fairgate approached her from the back of the garage, still in white coveralls, and a big grin on his face. "Morning Karen," he greeted her. "Good morning," she said back. "Like I told you Karen it's all good as new. And I managed to fix both the engine and the radiator hose, so both of them are as good as new. Saves you some money." Karen beamed at Sid. "Your a miracle worker Sid," she complimented. Sid turned his attention away from her and sauntered over to a black sedan that was slowly pulling up outside the garage. Karen still couldn't take her eyes off of him._

Karen put on her reading glasses and tried to focus her attention on an article in the magazine about the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Mac closed up the book on haunted houses and set it down on the coffee table. Mac sighed. "Man...those ghost stories," he said, "I sure wouldn't recommend that book to a three year old."

He walked slowly into the dimly lit, small hotel room and headed straight for the bathroom. "I need a shower," he said to himself. He had a brief memory of running from the jaguar getting ready to jump on him in the swamp. He immediately turned away from the shower and fell down on the floor sobbing hysterically.

Mac was already asleep in bed. Karen just sat up awake in the dark. Memory lane was kicking in again.

 _Karen stood beside the desk in the tiny office in the back of the garage, while Sid sat there filling out some paperwork about fixing the damages to a race car. Every so often he would look up and her and grin. There was twinkle in his eyes when he looked at her. The young woman grinned back at him. "So yeah thats about it. The wife and I finally had our last argument, I mean I could put up with all her crap before in the past, but when she accused me of having spent the night in bed with her gorgeous cousin, now THAT WAS THAT!" Sid laughed. "The nerve of that woman! So we divided up who got what and went our separate ways and that's the end." Karen just kept looking down at him transfixed._

 _Abby walked into the office and dropped a large manilla folder down on the desk. A man walked into the office right behind her. "Cmon Abby lets go," intoned the man, "I made reservations at the best eatery in town." The dark haired man in the black suit smiled at Sid. Sid looked up from his paperwork. "Karen I'd like to meet Abby's new boyfriend Jeff." Karen and Jeff turned to each other and shook hands."How do you do Karen." "How do you do Jeff. Nice to meet you."_

Karen finally closed her eyes and dozed off to sleep.

He just lay on the floor of the hotel room sobbing on and on and on. Images of himself being held hostage for an hour by the terrorist gang in the jungle, escaping, the jaguar going at his left arm. He looked at the huge scar on his arm. He finally got up off the floor and darted into the bathroom. He threw up in the sink.

ACT TWO-The next morning Gary showed up bright and early in his office in a gray suit and orange tie and decided to start the day with a few phone calls. "Hello, is this the Bailey Agency...," Gary spoke hurriedly into the phone after dialing the number, "yes, this is Gary Ewing...yes...you guys still represent Cathy Geary?" Gary anxiously tapped his finger along the desktop. "Uh huh," he said into the phone, "you say what?" Gary bolted to his feet. "That's how long she's been a client with you lot?" Gary slowly sat back down again. "Yes I was Cathy's lover. Well anyways thanks again. Bye." He slowly put down the phone.

Gary walked out of the office and into the hallway. He was greeted by Greg and Abby. The couple smiled at him, but Gary just ignored them and headed straight for the elevator. Abby and Greg both looked at each other and shrugged. "He's probably still sore over our affair that time," joked Greg. Abby just laughed.

Gary and Mac and Frank all sat together at the large table in the fancy restaurant. All three dressed smartly in buisness suits. "Gary this is a really, REALLY crazy theory of yours," said Mac in between forking noodles into his mouth. Frank was eating a large strawberry sundae. He shook his head wile smiling. "A dead girl comes back to life. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" He spooned another helping of the tasty ice cream into his mouth. "Weird man." Gary was eating a canoli. "I know but just suppose, "said Gary, as Mac and Frank both looked ate each other while slowly shaking their heads, "just suppose," repeated Gary, he took a bite of his canoli, "just suppose, that Ciiji didn't die after all! Let's suppose that mabey that bash on her head just badly injured her, knocked her out for awhile, but didn't actually kill her!" Gary swallowed his bite of canoli. Mac rubbed both his hands together. "So what proof so far do you have of this drama of yours Gary?" asked Mac with a big smile on his face. Then he turned and snapped his fingers at the pretty waitress carrying a tray of cocktails through the restaurant. "Waitress, I'll have one of those if you don't mind!" Mac called to the woman. The waitress set down the small green colored drink down on the table. Mac picked it up and sipped it eagerly. "Look," said Gary, "Cathy said on the concert show that she'd been hired to perform by Richard Avery for his restaurant. The only singer employed to sing that night was Ciiji." Frank spooned another helping of ice cream into his mouth. "Though I heard that it was that other girl Ginger that ended up performing, "he said while eating his ice cream. "I saw one of her albums in the music store the other day." "Yeah," said Gary, "but look, why would Cathy lie about something like that? Why? Why?"Gary took another bite of his canoli. "Item two, " he continued, "I called the package agency that represents Cathy and according to them, Cathy has been with them since 1979! They say they have her on the books for that long!" Mac took another sip of his cocktail then set the glass back down on the table. He looked at Gary with interest. "I don't know Gary, there was an autopsy as I recall." Gary nodded slightly, as he took another bite of his canoli. "So they say, but mabey Abby faked it somehow. Mabey she and the coroner handling the case, got together some kind of deal under the table, where he or she gets an s with a line going down the middle of it if he agrees to lie about having done an autopsy. This was mabey another Abby scheme: screw my mind up a bit so she can siphon money and business deals from me under my nose." He took another bite of his canoli. "With her partner in crime Greg." Frank finished the last of his ice cream. "And you want Mac and I to play Dick Tracy and dig up something concrete right?" Gary swallowed his bite of canoli and nodded. "Now you get it." Mac drank down the rest of his cocktail. He still eyed Gary with an interested look on his face. His eyes slanted a bit. "Well I must say you do bring up a few interesting points there Gary, but Gary sometimes it's best just to let go of the past and move forwards. I mean being stuck in memory lane too much just slows you down." Gary chewed off another part of his canoli. "I want this checked out, and you two are the best. Let's just say I owe you two one." Gary laughed at his little joke. Mac shook his head. "It's best sometimes just to let the past go. It really doesn't do you any good to still be in love with a girls' who dead." Gary finished his canoli. He spotted the attractive waitress at the back of the restaurant serving cocktails. "Miss, I'll have one also!" Gary called to the woman. Both Mac and Frank looked at each other in shock. "Gary!" they both said surprised. The waitress set the blue cocktail down on the table in front of Gary. "Like Mac said, Gary, "grunted Frank, "sometimes it's best to let go of the past." "Ohhhhhhhhh boy, "whispered Mac as Gary downed the blue liquid in virtually one gulp.

He just sat crosslegged in the shower crying. The water wasn't on. He hadn't even undressed. he just sat crying with his head in his hands. The terrorists holding him hostage in the jungle. The jaguar dragging him by his arm through the swamp. The bandit shooting at him. he finally just looked up at the ceiling and shrieked! "How long have I been gone anyways?!" he cried. He then got up and walked carefully out of the shower stall laughing like a madman. He did the jitterbug all over the room.

The overweight, red haired maid walked in and startled him. She just stood staring at him with her mouth open in shock. "We get all kinds," she said.

"But can we see the autopsy photos of the body?" Mac asked the man in the coroner office. The forty year old, red haired man just sat behind his desk shaking his head in bewilderment. Mac and Frank stood in front of the desk. Mac then rested his knuckles on the desktop and leaned his face towards the man. "Look, I can understand your discretion about the autopsy, but this is more or less an official investigation, Now we'd like to have a look at the autopsy photos." The head coroner sat with his hands folded on his lap and eyed Mac and Frank. "Look, we have certain rules here. Only specific family members can see the photos of the body. I'm sorry but company policy." Frank rolled his eyes to the ceiling and sighed. Both men turned towards the door. "Well thanks for your help. Ha," said Frank sarcastically. Both men walked out of the office and slammed the door.

Out in the hallway, the two men just stood there wondering what to do next. "Well what now?" asked Frank. "Do we even really believe this crazy idea of Gary's?!" Mac then led towards Frank towards the staircase leading to the basement of the building. "Why the basement?" asked Frank. "It's time to get creative," snickered Mac.

ACT THREE-Karen stood outside the house in the garden, watering the daisies with a garden house. It was a gorgeous sunny day outside. She saw a blue volkswagon drive slowly up the road way in the distance. It took her back down memory lane again.

 _Sid Fairgate was closing up the garage for the night. He was removing his white coveralls while also pulling down the door of the garage. he put the white coveralls on a shelf next to him. He then adjusted the buttons on his red and blue striped, short sleeve shirt. He then went about switching off all the lights in the garage, when Karen walked in through the back door. She was dressed in beautiful, green evening gown and carrying a rose. "Hi," greeted the young woman with a big grin as she slowly walked towards Sid carrying the rose. Sid grinned back at her. He gently took the rose. "What's the occasion? I mean your car's all fixed." They both laughed. "I just wanted to surprise you that's all," said Karen romantically. The two of them kissed on the lips._

 _Later that night, Sid and Karen both sat in Sid's brown station wagon parked outside the garage. They talked quietly to each other in between lip kisses._

Karen finished hosing the garden, and dropped the hose down on the grass. She turned off the hose and walked towards the back door of the house. "Enough with memory lane," she thought, "Sids' gone and that's that." she opened the screen door. "He's never coming back. Being stuck in the past like this is no good. It just keeps you from moving forwards. The past is dead and gone and that's the end of it."

Then, Karen sat down on the floor and began weeping.

 _Karen and Sid walked along that beach. The station wagon was parked way way off in the distance. The two of them walked slowly together under the moonlight. "Yup that was my dream as a kid," remembered Sid as he put his arm around Karen. "Race car Fairgate." Karen turned to grin at him. "So what happened? You found fixing cars more exciting then racing them?" Sid turned away from her and stared at the ocean for a few seconds. "Well I just got sidetracked into other stuff. And with a wife to support I needed a steady job, and that doesn't happen to a guy who wants to be a racing star..._

Karen just sat weeping. "No," she thought. "Sid is gone and Mac is my man now. Mac. Sid is the past. Mac is the present. Time to forget the past and live in the present. Being stuck in the past like this isn't good." She blushed and stood up.

Gary sat behind his desk in his office at Lotus Point, with the phone stuck in his right ear. "Hello Cathy is that you?" A smile developed on his face. "it's me Gary! God it's been so long! I finally got the phone number of the hotel your staying at..."

Elsewhere, in a hotel room in Montreal Canada, Cathy Geary sat on her bed with the phone balanced in her ear as well. She was wearing a pink bathrobe, and she smiled as she heard Gary's voice on the phone. "Hi Gary how have you been? The tour is going great. What's up? Are you finally asking me to marry you?" She chuckled.

In his office at Lotus Point, Gary frowned as he thought of his next question. "Well Cathy let me come right to the point."

In her hotel room in Montreal, Cathy began pacing eagerly around the hotel room. The phone being held in her ear by her shoulder. She had a huge grin on her face. Then, in a second, her grin vanished into a concerned look on her face, as she heard Gary's next question. "Don't call me again Gary," she said then she moved to the phone stand and hung up the phone. She then fell down on the bed on her back and put her hands on her face.

In his office at Lotus Point, Gary picked up the phone and tossed it across the room. Then he stormed out of the office where he again ran into Abby and Greg standing in the hallway in some deep business discussion with a fat chinese man in a green business suit. Gary had a mad look on his face as he pulled Abby. "Hey dude!" exclaimed Greg. "Gary? What is this!" Abby looked up with surprise at Gary. She clutched a small red folder close to her breasts, in her gray dress. "I have an important meeting in one min..." "ABBY I KNOW YOU AND CIIJI ARE IN THIS TOGETHER SOMEHOW!" Abby just shook her head in ignorance. "I don't know what your on about..." "Take your hands off her," ordered Greg. as he got behind Gary scowling. "Abby, you and Ciiji faked her death! I can't really prove it yet but you and I both know it! Of all the dirty, selfish, rotten...YOU SCHEMING, LYING GOOD FOR NOTHING BITCH!" Gary was shouting into her face. He gripped both her shoulders. "I ALMOST WENT TO THE HANGMAN BECAUSE OF THAT, AND YOU KNEW SHE WAS ALIVE ALL ALONG!" "TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF HER!" shouted Greg. Gary turned his head slightly at Greg. "GET LOST YOU JERK!" Gary was raving now. "YOUR BOTH IN THIS POTBOILER TOGETHER!" "GARY I DON"T KNOW WHAT YOUR ON ABOUT!?" Abby screamed as loud as she could. "CIIJI DIDN"T DIE AFTER ALL! BUT YOU MADE A DEAL WITH HER AND THE CORONER OFFICE TO LIE AND FAKE THE WHOLE THING! I WAS ARRESTED FOR HER MURDER! WHAT!? DID YOU HAVE A DEAL WITH JILL TOO BEFORE HER 'DEATH'!?"

Greg spun Gary around to face him. Then he socked Gary as hard as he could across Gary's jaw! Gary went flying straight down the hallway and smack, feet first, into the elevator doors. Greg then took Abby by her right arm and ushered her into a room across the hall from Gary's office. Gary just sat in the hall stunned. Blood gushing out of his mouth.

He stood in the hotel room and got himself all spit and polished by putting on his best business suit-dark green with a black and yellow striped tie. "Yes sir," he smiled while doing a little tap dance, "I want to impress her after having been away for so long." He had another memory of sleeping in the jungle in the dark. The growls of jaguars in the distance. Then he walked around the hotel room flexing his biceps. "Me Rambo," he chortled, "I come from the jungle to reclaim my woman and...uh...not exactly my kids." He then slowly hit his face with his fists.

He ran from the hotel room and ran as fast as possible into the street. It was evening. It brought back a bad memory of being chased by bandit driving a jeep down a road in the jungle. He broke into tears as he hailed a taxi.

Mac and Frank had gone into the basement, of the coroner building. They came upon row upon row of filing cabinets. "So what now? " asked Frank as he looked at Mac while they wandered about the large storage facillity. Cold sweat dripped down the black complexion. Mac pointed to the cabinet listed under D for Dunne (Ciiji's last name). They crept quietly to the cabinet, as a security guard sat by the windows way ahead of them eating his lunch, his back to them, oblivious to what the two men were up to. Mac looked at Frank and put his finger to his lips. Frank nodded. Mac then opened the D drawer and paged silently through the files. He found the one he was after, Ciiji Dunne. The security guard turned around at that moment. The heavy set blonde haired man darted towards them . "HEY!" he shouted. Mac and Frank ran out of the basement and back up the stairs, Mac carrying the file.

In a bar right around the corner, Mac and Frank sat at a table in the middle of the establishment both paging through the file together. Mac whistled. "Biggest cover up I ever saw," said Mac. "Wow," said Frank. "Gary was right. Ciiji was struck on the head and seriously injured, but according to this file...she didn't die!" Frank looked down closer at the file. "It says here that when Ciiji was taken to the morgue she was found...WITH A FAINT HEARTBEAT!" said Frank excitedly. "HOLY MAMA!" "Yeah," admitted Mac," according to the file she was then taken to the hospital where she recovered in due time, but was amnesiac for a time because of the blow to the head." He turned another page. "Nothing else," added Frank. He turned his head, and called to the bartender. "Bartender a scotch on the rocks please!" Mac then shut the file folder. "Let's just let sleeping dogs lie," said Frank quietly to Mac as the bartender brought over a large scotch on the rocks. "Let Ciiji be." "Yeah," whispered Mac. He folded his hands behind his head. "This'll be our deep dark private secret," decided Mac as Frank drank up the scotch. "We won't tell Gary. No doubt Abby is behind this, as Gary said." Frank nodded as he finished his drink and swallowed.

Gary just sat in his office in the dark with his head in his hands, behind his desk. "Like Mac said," he thought to himself, "let the past stay in the past. Sometimes memory lane is better left closed up." Images flashed into his brain of Ciiji lying out cold on the beach, of her singing on stage, of Cathy performing in a disco, he'd seen her singing in one night alongside Donna Summer. "No" he thought to himself, "leave Ciiji's other identity in the past." Then he slowly rose to his feet. "Still I'd really like to kill Abby, as I know she's behind this!" he thought jokingly.

In her hotel room in Montreal Cathy sat anxiously on her bed and was nervously dialling a number on the telephone. She put the phone in her ear. "Get me Abby Cunningham please!" she said into the phone.

It was night. Pitch black. He got out of the taxi, outside Val's home and, after paying the elderly, male driver a 100 dollar bill, the taxi drove off. But he just stood there. He stood silently watching the house. "Well what now?" he thought uneasily. "Do I just walk in and grab her into my arms like a scene out of Gone With the Wind? Or do I..."

Gary's car suddenly pulled up right outside Val's house. He didn't want to be seen just yet so he dived into some bushes nearby, where he could watch under cover. He saw Gary, and Val and the kids all jump happily out of the car and head for the front door of the house. "Now brush your teeth and straight to bed kids," he heard Val say as the family opened the front door and dashed into the house. From the looks of it Gary had a bad injury on his jaw. A car accident? The family slammed the door behind them.

He stepped out from behind the bushes and moved quietly and steadily towards Val's home. "It's too late for me, "he thought wearily and hurtfully. Tears streamed from his eyes. "She's back with Gary again and I'm out of the picture. Just a lost and probably forgotton ex." Ben Gibson slowly turned away from the house and began a slow walk down the dark, night street. "Sometimes it's best just to let the past be," he thought to himself, as he began to go into a jig right there on the street.

 _He was running through the swamp. The jaguar was coming after him. The jaguar leaped and sunk it's fangs into his left arm! Ben shrieked in agony!_

 _He was sitting in his tent listening for news on his portable when the bandit gang burst into camp. All of his companions, sweat streaming down their bodies, came racing from their tents to see what was wrong. What all the commotion was. One of the bandits shot Ben in his knee with a sub machine gun as he jumped out of his tent in his jungle greens. Another bandit grabbed the pretty blonde jungle tracker and dragged her into an empty tent. Ben could hear the woman screaming:"NO! NO! NO ! NO!"while he heard the crazed bandit laughing maniacally._

 _Ben ran through the jungle. He ran! He ran into a swamp. A jaguar was there. the jaguar..._

Ben put his face in his hands and cried and cried and cried and cried! He then put his hands away and broke out into a big cheerful grin and did a tap dance all over the street in the dark. "It was just one of those thingssssssssss," Ben was singing the Cole Porter song while dancing all over the dark street. "One of those crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyy things!" He sung the words louder than ever.

Two hours later the patrol car stopped off at the local mental instituition for shell shocked vets. A burly black policeman hustled Ben Gibson, who was now crying again. "THE JAGUAR IS COMING!" Ben shouted. "IT"S COMING!" The policeman pushed Ben through the doors of the hospital.

Mac and Frank sat in the bar ordering another round of drinks and paging through the file of Ciiji Dunne again. "Sometimes it's best to just let the past stay in the past," repeated Mac as he studied more of the pages. "Wow the way you got that file Mac." Frank was impressed. "It must say on your C.V that your previous employment was working for Kojak!" He and Mac both laughed.


End file.
